


shattered glass

by werealldreaming



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Platonic Soulmates, Sorry Not Sorry, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:34:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27919822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werealldreaming/pseuds/werealldreaming
Summary: (okay but consider an au where you have marks of hourglasses that tick down to the death of the people who you love the most)
Relationships: Kaladin & Tien (Stormlight Archive)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 20





	shattered glass

Tien turns thirteen only a few months before he is drafted. Three marks appear–Hesina, Lirin, and Kaladin–which is no surprise to anyone. They’re perfectly normal, perfectly standard. Despite the stress of life in Hearthstone, there’s no reason to think they’ll shatter any time soon.

Even when they are conscripted, the marks don’t run faster. That’s not how they work, but now–it feels wrong. It should be faster.

He and Kaladin are separated. He’s put in a messenger squad, as Amaram had promised, then moved to a reserve squad. He takes comfort in his marks, in the slow, steady fall of the sand in the hourglass. Watches it at night, and reassures himself that his family is fine. That Kaladin is fine. He imagines Kaladin, doing the same.

They’re given no warning before the battle. Just spears, thrust into barely-trained hands, put on the front lines. Tien barely has time to process what’s happening, to process the orders, before they’re marching.

He’s never been this close to the battle before. It’s horrifying–there’s blood everywhere, and it’s so _loud_ , and Tien swallows hard and tries not to cry. There are swords and spears clashing all around and–

“–Tien!”

It’s Kaladin, and Tien is given an anchor against the onslaught of the battle. He turns to him and smiles, because Kaladin’s here, and he forgets to focus on anything else. And then? Nothing.

(A few feet away, an hourglass shatters silently.)

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to scream at me in the comments :D
> 
> as usual, [tumblr](https://ternaryflower53.tumblr.com)
> 
> also, i'm in the process of transferring my tumblr ficlets over to ao3! i've been backdating them to the original date posted, but that means they don't show up in the most recent ao3 feeds. i haven't done all of them yet, but you can find some on my ao3 profile, and they're all on my tumblr (i swear most of them are way more fluffy than this)


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